Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling writer John Colapinto''s About the Author is "a thriller worthy of Hitchcock at his best" (Stephen King).Despite a severe case of writer''s block, Cal Cunningham dreams of writing a novel that will permit him to escape from his life as a penniless stockboy in dirty and dangerous upper Manhattan bookstore.However, when his roommate is suddenly killed in a bicycle accident, Cal is suddenly the author of a page-turning autobiography. Propelled to the top of the bestseller lists with million-dollar movie deals, Cal finds that he has realized his most outlandish fantasies of literary success.That is, until he discovers that someone knows his secret . . .A searingly funny psychological thriller, About the Author delves into the excesses of the publishing world and shows that sometimes the difference between reality and imagination can be fatal."Splendid suspense." —Stephen King"Clever and entertaining." —Elle"Shamelessly entertaining." —USA Today"A rare and successful mix of spoof and suspense." —Entertainment Weekly"A well-paced and often darkly humorous thriller that scores direct hits on the publishing industry." —New York Times Book Review"John Colapinto''s clever and delightfully nasty book . . . is the literary equivalent of M. C. Escher''s hands drawing each other." —Baltimore Sun"John Colapinto''s comic literary thriller is a page-turning pleasure." —San Francisco Chronicle

A fascinating guide to a career in neurosurgery written by award-winning journalist John Colapinto and based on the real-life experiences of an expert in the field—essential reading for someone considering a path to this most challenging profession. Choosing what to do with your life begins with imagining yourself in a career, actually meeting the emotional, physical, and intellectual demands of the job. Often regarded as one of the most technically and emotionally demanding of surgical disciplines, becoming a neurosurgeon requires years of study. This practical guide offers a unique opportunity to see what daily life for a neurosurgeon is like, from someone who has mastered the profession and can explain what the risks and rewards of the job really are. Joshua Bederson is the chief of Neurosurgery at the esteemed Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. New Yorker writer John Colapinto brings to vivid life what Dr. Bederson’s professional life is like to show all the varied facets of his work, from extensive study and research to brain operations, one-on-one consultations with patients, and even staff meetings with fellow surgeons and students. Since Mt. Sinai is a teaching hospital, we learn alongside the residents and interns how Bederson trains neurosurgeons, passing along the knowledge and skills he honed over decades. The result is a multidimensional portrait of a man and a department, a practical guide for how to enter and learn the profession, as well as a moving glimpse into the world of patients and doctors who face some of life’s most harrowing challenges.

A fascinating guide to a career in neurosurgery written by award-winning journalist John Colapinto and based on the real-life experiences of an expert in the field—essential reading for someone considering a path to this most challenging profession. Choosing what to do with your life begins with imagining yourself in a career, actually meeting the emotional, physical, and intellectual demands of the job. Often regarded as one of the most technically and emotionally demanding of surgical disciplines, becoming a neurosurgeon requires years of study. This practical guide offers a unique opportunity to see what daily life for a neurosurgeon is like, from someone who has mastered the profession and can explain what the risks and rewards of the job really are. Joshua Bederson is the chief of Neurosurgery at the esteemed Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. New Yorker writer John Colapinto brings to vivid life what Dr. Bederson’s professional life is like to show all the varied facets of his work, from extensive study and research to brain operations, one-on-one consultations with patients, and even staff meetings with fellow surgeons and students. Since Mt. Sinai is a teaching hospital, we learn alongside the residents and interns how Bederson trains neurosurgeons, passing along the knowledge and skills he honed over decades. The result is a multidimensional portrait of a man and a department, a practical guide for how to enter and learn the profession, as well as a moving glimpse into the world of patients and doctors who face some of life’s most harrowing challenges.

A New York Times bestselling writer explores what our unique sonic signature reveals about our species, our culture, and each one of us. Finally, a vital topic that has never had its own book gets its due.There’s no shortage of books about public speaking or language or song. But until now, there has been no book about the miracle that underlies them all—the human voice itself. And there are few writers who could take on this surprisingly vast topic with more artistry and expertise than John Colapinto. Beginning with the novel—and compelling—argument that our ability to speak is what made us the planet’s dominant species, he guides us from the voice’s beginnings in lungfish millions of years ago to its culmination in the talent of Pavoratti, Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyoncé—and each of us, every day. Along the way, he shows us why the voice is the most efficient, effective means of communication ever devised: it works in all directions, in all weathers, even in the dark, and it can be calibrated to reach one other person or thousands. He reveals why speech is the single most complex and intricate activity humans can perform. He travels up the Amazon to meet the Piraha, a reclusive tribe whose singular language, more musical than any other, can help us hear how melodic principles underpin every word we utter. He heads up to Harvard to see how professional voices are helped and healed, and he ventures out on the campaign trail to see how demagogues wield their voices as weapons. As far-reaching as this book is, much of the delight of reading it lies in how intimate it feels. Everything Colapinto tells us can be tested by our own lungs and mouths and ears and brains. He shows us that, for those who pay attention, the voice is an eloquent means of communicating not only what the speaker means, but also their mood, sexual preference, age, income, even psychological and physical illness. It overstates the case only slightly to say that anyone who talks, or sings, or listens will find a rich trove of thrills in This Is the Voice.

A wickedly funny psychological thriller about literary ambition, envy and the lengths an author will go to get on the bestsellers list.Cal Cunningham dreams of writing an autobiographical novel that will help him escape from his life as a penniless bookstore stockboy in upper Manhattan. Yet, after two years of living together, it is Stewart, Cal’s studious flatmate who has finished writing a page-turning novel – based on Cal’s life.When a timely, fatal bicycle accident removes Stewart from the scene, Cal appropriates the manuscript as his own and places it in the hands of the legendarily ferocious literary agent Blackie Yeager.Soon Cal realises his most outlandish fantasies of literary success. That is, until he discovers that someone knows his secret. For Cal, this means plotting not just his second novel, but also his first murder.

Jasper Ulrickson, beloved memoirist and crime novelist, is a good and decent man-devoted husband to his paralysed wife and loving father to their four-year-old child. Despite their challenges, the Ulricksons are happy. Then Jasper learns of the daughter he fathered eighteen years earlier, a beautiful young woman named Chloe, whose mother recently passed away. She needs her father and so Jasper welcomes her into his family and their home. Celibacy, sexual denial and marital fidelity are the traits for which Jasper has been celebrated by fans the world over. But he now learns-to his horror-that these traits have never been truly tested. That a man could feel such unnatural, horrible urges is unthinkable to Jasper. But then, Jasper does not know all of Chloe's story...A risk-taking, controversial and courageous novel, Undone is an unforgettable thriller-cum-satire which will be relished by fans of Michel Houellebecq, John Niven and Patricia Highsmith.

Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling writer John Colapinto''s About the Author is "a thriller worthy of Hitchcock at his best" (Stephen King).Despite a severe case of writer''s block, Cal Cunningham dreams of writing a novel that will permit him to escape from his life as a penniless stockboy in dirty and dangerous upper Manhattan bookstore.However, when his roommate is suddenly killed in a bicycle accident, Cal is suddenly the author of a page-turning autobiography. Propelled to the top of the bestseller lists with million-dollar movie deals, Cal finds that he has realized his most outlandish fantasies of literary success.That is, until he discovers that someone knows his secret . . .A searingly funny psychological thriller, About the Author delves into the excesses of the publishing world and shows that sometimes the difference between reality and imagination can be fatal."Splendid suspense." —Stephen King"Clever and entertaining." —Elle"Shamelessly entertaining." —USA Today"A rare and successful mix of spoof and suspense." —Entertainment Weekly"A well-paced and often darkly humorous thriller that scores direct hits on the publishing industry." —New York Times Book Review"John Colapinto''s clever and delightfully nasty book . . . is the literary equivalent of M. C. Escher''s hands drawing each other." —Baltimore Sun"John Colapinto''s comic literary thriller is a page-turning pleasure." —San Francisco Chronicle

A fascinating guide to a career in neurosurgery written by award-winning journalist John Colapinto and based on the real-life experiences of an expert in the field—essential reading for someone considering a path to this most challenging profession. Choosing what to do with your life begins with imagining yourself in a career, actually meeting the emotional, physical, and intellectual demands of the job. Often regarded as one of the most technically and emotionally demanding of surgical disciplines, becoming a neurosurgeon requires years of study. This practical guide offers a unique opportunity to see what daily life for a neurosurgeon is like, from someone who has mastered the profession and can explain what the risks and rewards of the job really are. Joshua Bederson is the chief of Neurosurgery at the esteemed Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. New Yorker writer John Colapinto brings to vivid life what Dr. Bederson’s professional life is like to show all the varied facets of his work, from extensive study and research to brain operations, one-on-one consultations with patients, and even staff meetings with fellow surgeons and students. Since Mt. Sinai is a teaching hospital, we learn alongside the residents and interns how Bederson trains neurosurgeons, passing along the knowledge and skills he honed over decades. The result is a multidimensional portrait of a man and a department, a practical guide for how to enter and learn the profession, as well as a moving glimpse into the world of patients and doctors who face some of life’s most harrowing challenges.

A fascinating guide to a career in neurosurgery written by award-winning journalist John Colapinto and based on the real-life experiences of an expert in the field—essential reading for someone considering a path to this most challenging profession. Choosing what to do with your life begins with imagining yourself in a career, actually meeting the emotional, physical, and intellectual demands of the job. Often regarded as one of the most technically and emotionally demanding of surgical disciplines, becoming a neurosurgeon requires years of study. This practical guide offers a unique opportunity to see what daily life for a neurosurgeon is like, from someone who has mastered the profession and can explain what the risks and rewards of the job really are. Joshua Bederson is the chief of Neurosurgery at the esteemed Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. New Yorker writer John Colapinto brings to vivid life what Dr. Bederson’s professional life is like to show all the varied facets of his work, from extensive study and research to brain operations, one-on-one consultations with patients, and even staff meetings with fellow surgeons and students. Since Mt. Sinai is a teaching hospital, we learn alongside the residents and interns how Bederson trains neurosurgeons, passing along the knowledge and skills he honed over decades. The result is a multidimensional portrait of a man and a department, a practical guide for how to enter and learn the profession, as well as a moving glimpse into the world of patients and doctors who face some of life’s most harrowing challenges.

A New York Times bestselling writer explores what our unique sonic signature reveals about our species, our culture, and each one of us. Finally, a vital topic that has never had its own book gets its due.There’s no shortage of books about public speaking or language or song. But until now, there has been no book about the miracle that underlies them all—the human voice itself. And there are few writers who could take on this surprisingly vast topic with more artistry and expertise than John Colapinto. Beginning with the novel—and compelling—argument that our ability to speak is what made us the planet’s dominant species, he guides us from the voice’s beginnings in lungfish millions of years ago to its culmination in the talent of Pavoratti, Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyoncé—and each of us, every day. Along the way, he shows us why the voice is the most efficient, effective means of communication ever devised: it works in all directions, in all weathers, even in the dark, and it can be calibrated to reach one other person or thousands. He reveals why speech is the single most complex and intricate activity humans can perform. He travels up the Amazon to meet the Piraha, a reclusive tribe whose singular language, more musical than any other, can help us hear how melodic principles underpin every word we utter. He heads up to Harvard to see how professional voices are helped and healed, and he ventures out on the campaign trail to see how demagogues wield their voices as weapons. As far-reaching as this book is, much of the delight of reading it lies in how intimate it feels. Everything Colapinto tells us can be tested by our own lungs and mouths and ears and brains. He shows us that, for those who pay attention, the voice is an eloquent means of communicating not only what the speaker means, but also their mood, sexual preference, age, income, even psychological and physical illness. It overstates the case only slightly to say that anyone who talks, or sings, or listens will find a rich trove of thrills in This Is the Voice.

A wickedly funny psychological thriller about literary ambition, envy and the lengths an author will go to get on the bestsellers list.Cal Cunningham dreams of writing an autobiographical novel that will help him escape from his life as a penniless bookstore stockboy in upper Manhattan. Yet, after two years of living together, it is Stewart, Cal’s studious flatmate who has finished writing a page-turning novel – based on Cal’s life.When a timely, fatal bicycle accident removes Stewart from the scene, Cal appropriates the manuscript as his own and places it in the hands of the legendarily ferocious literary agent Blackie Yeager.Soon Cal realises his most outlandish fantasies of literary success. That is, until he discovers that someone knows his secret. For Cal, this means plotting not just his second novel, but also his first murder.

Jasper Ulrickson, beloved memoirist and crime novelist, is a good and decent man-devoted husband to his paralysed wife and loving father to their four-year-old child. Despite their challenges, the Ulricksons are happy. Then Jasper learns of the daughter he fathered eighteen years earlier, a beautiful young woman named Chloe, whose mother recently passed away. She needs her father and so Jasper welcomes her into his family and their home. Celibacy, sexual denial and marital fidelity are the traits for which Jasper has been celebrated by fans the world over. But he now learns-to his horror-that these traits have never been truly tested. That a man could feel such unnatural, horrible urges is unthinkable to Jasper. But then, Jasper does not know all of Chloe's story...A risk-taking, controversial and courageous novel, Undone is an unforgettable thriller-cum-satire which will be relished by fans of Michel Houellebecq, John Niven and Patricia Highsmith.